The present application relates to a drill press and saw table for automatically cutting a groove in the base of a drawer for a drawer slide and simultaneously drilling a hole in the back of the drawer for a drawer-securing pin.
The Tandem(trademark) drawer system from Julius Blum, Inc., Stanley, N.C., is very popular with kitchen cabinet makers. This system, shown in FIG. 1, consists of a telescoping drawer slide S and a pin P. The slide S mates with a groove G in the base of the drawer D, and the pin P mates with a hole H in the back of the drawer D, as shown in FIG. 2.
Previously, to adapt a drawer to work with this system, it was necessary to manually cut the groove G using a table saw and then use a separate drill press to drill the hole H. This was very time consuming and subject to error.
The present invention automatically cuts the groove G and the hole H in one step, greatly speeding up the process and essentially eliminating error.
An apparatus for automatically cutting a drawer slide groove and drilling a drawer-securing pin hole in a drawer, the drawer having a bottom with a plurality of edges extending downwardly from the bottom and a rear wall, the apparatus comprising:
a) a support, the drawer resting on the support during the cutting and drilling operations;
b) a power saw having a moving blade adapted for cutting a groove in the drawer;
c) a first guide mounted on the support and adapted to slidingly engage one of the plurality of downwardly extending drawer edges, thereby positioning the saw blade adjacent the downwardly extending drawer edge;
d) a drill carrier movable in a first direction and a second direction relative to the support; and
e) a power drill mounted in the drill carrier and having a drill bit adapted to drill a drawer-securing pin hole in the rear wall of the drawer.
A principal object and advantage of the present invention is that it automatically cuts the groove for the drawer slide and drills the hole for the securing pin.
Another object and advantage of the present invention is that includes a rotary saw blade with a unique tooth construction to cut the groove.
Another object and advantage of the present invention is that it includes push buttons that, when pressed by the drawer, automatically position the drill at the correct position for drilling the hole.
Another object and advantage of the present invention is that the saw blade is not raised into cutting position until one of the push buttons is pressed, for safety reasons.
Another object and advantage of the present invention is that the drill is not activated until one of the push buttons is pressed, for safety reasons.